


DB Cooper AU

by TaraTyler



Category: Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, References to Leverage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 11:44:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5126309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraTyler/pseuds/TaraTyler





	DB Cooper AU

It was on the day before Thanksgiving in 1971 and it was Agent Danny Lawrence’s first official day heading up the FBI Seattle team’s division. She had made what she had thought to be a rousing goodbye speech on compassion for everyone involved in a case in Portland before heading out quickly to take up her new position. The agent Lawrence was already needed to work on her first big case. This was the big one that was going to set the tone for her entire career from here on out. A plane, numbered flight three-oh-five had been hijacked by some person carrying a bomb in the field of Lawrence’s jurisdiction. She was simultaneously extremely anxious, nervous, and incredibly excited. She ordered immediately upon her arrival that everyone that was on that plane be removed as soon as possible for fear of someone or anyone getting hurt.  
She got set up as Agent LaFontaine recommended that the strike team be sent in. They claimed that they could take out the hijacker while leaving the scene with minimal casualties. This didn’t work at all for Agent Lawrence who wanted whoever it was off the plane with no losses at all, whatsoever. In her opinion, no one wasn’t worth saving not even the hijacker his or herself. No one did these things because they wanted to, they did them because they had been pushed too far.  
“Everyone is going to get out of this alive.” she swears. “Give him what he wants and we can hunt him down from there.”   
“We won’t ever see him again if we do that and we will likely lose the poor girl trapped on there with him as well.” LaF protests.  
“I told you that we aren’t going to lose anyone. I meant that.” Danny insists.  
“If you say so. His demands so far are $200,000, four parachutes, and gas enough to get him to Mexico City.” LaF fills her in.  
“But he told the stewardess that she shouldn’t be a hero and to tell the pilot to maintain 10,000 feet with the flaps at fifteen degrees. With only that much gas they won’t make it out past Reno. We need to get out to Nevada now.” she orders, packing up her things as quickly as she can and running out of the door without another word.  
In Las Vegas, Danny Lawrence is greeted by an empty plane, with four people on board and no hijacker. The stewardess in a young woman around her age, anxiously twisting an engagement ring on her left ring finger. Danny points it out and the girl makes a sound halfway between a laugh and a snort.  
“It’s a fake to keep the drunks at bay. It doesn’t work very well, but it’s the best that I can come up with.” she mutters.  
“Okay, tell me everything that you remember. Even the smallest details can help so be sure to do your best not to leave anything at all out if you can.” Danny says in her most reassuring voice.  
“It was a very normal flight. A lot of the men were flirting with us, giving us notes and phone numbers and tips. A woman on the aisle seat stood out to me because she wore a hat and sunglasses even though we were on an airplane at night. That, and because she ordered a bourbon and water and gave me a note as well. This was something that didn’t happen often either. I stuck it in my pocket with the others and ignored it as well. The next time that I passed her, she caught me by the arm, hard. That was the only time that she touched me. She said that I should really read her note and didn’t let go of me until I did. The note said that she had a bomb and was willing to use it if no one was willing to do as she had said.” Laura clenches her eyes shut as though she were trying to replay everything on the inside of her eyelids so that she could accurately relay everything to the young agent.  
“You guys had gotten everyone off of the plane. I had to stay though, to work as her mouthpiece between her and her pilots and with you. She asks for another bourbon and water, pays me for it, and tells me to keep the change. That’s when you brought the parachutes, and the money, and the gas. She tells me not to do anything brave and gestures to the bomb. I bring everything onto the plane, take a seat in the cockpit, and we take off. I’m sitting there when all of a sudden all of the alarms start going off. I ran out to see what was going on and found her standing in front of an open emergency exit with with the cases of money, wearing a parachute. She tips her hat to med and jumps. I’m not sure where we were over.” Laura looks truly shaken up, her eyes wide, hands trembling, but voice completely steady.  
“That’s okay, we can find that out from the pilot. It’ll be on one of those gadgets, I’m sure.” Danny sits up and runs a hand through her long red hair and stood up. “Thank you, Ms. Hollis. I swear that I will do everything at all possible and within my power to catch this woman.” she swears, an intense look on her face.  
“Thank you, be sure to come after me if you need absolutely anything.” Laura tells her, shaking Agent Lawrence’s hand.

\-------///////---------

They never called it a demotion, but nearly everyone knew that that was what it was. Danny was the agent that let Carmilla Karnstein get away. The only thing that Lawrence had been able to glean about the hijacker of Flight 305 during her investigation had been a name. Portland had brought her back with welcome and open arms, but her greatest shame preceded her no matter where she went. Laura had also been moved to Portland, but she was left alone. Everyone knew that Danny Lawrence was the one that let Karnstein get away.  
Carmilla Karnstein had become a folk hero, almost as though she were a modern day Robin Hood though nothing proved that she had given the money to the poor. Carmilla Karnstein had also become Agent Lawrence’s obsession. It had become her life’s goal for her to hunt down Carmilla Karnstein and bring her to justice. The hunt had taken over everything, her son included. She hated it, but she had neglected her husband, Wilson Kirsch, and their son, Todd. On Christmas Eve, three years after the hijacking, Danny got a call that someone might have made an ID from the composite sketch that Laura had given them on the day that it had all gone down.   
“Danny...no. It’s Christmas.” Kirsch protests when Danny answers that phone and she gets that look on her face again.  
“The boys think that they might have found her, for real this time.” she says excitedly.  
“It’s going too far. Not on Christmas, Danny. It can wait until tomorrow. Think about Todd. Look at his Christmas list.” Kirsch points out as he pulls the five year old into his lap, and hands the list to his wife.  
“A red bicycle...and Carmilla Karnstein. Let me get her for him, then.” Danny says a nearly desperate look on her face.  
“I was afraid that you were going to say that...go, then.” Danny says a nearly desperate look on her face.  
“I was afraid that you were going to say that...go, then. Be home safely. Try not to stay out too late.” Kirsch kisses his wife, and Todd kisses her cheek.  
Danny stops by the block and grabs herself a photo that had been provided. No on had ever actually proved that Carmilla Karnstein had survived her fall, and Danny finally began to feel that glimmer of hope that maybe she was finally going to redeem herself. Only one person had seen Carmilla Karnstein’s face well, sitting beside of her for five hours on that plane. It was to Laura that Danny returned. Despite the fact that it was Christmas, an older version of that girl answered the door. Danny still found herself rather starstruck by the younger woman but still she pressed on, standing out there in the rain.  
“Someone thinks that they saw her, Carmilla.” Danny says as soon as Laura opens the door.  
“Agent Lawrence! You’re soaking wet!” Laura says, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “What are you doing here?”  
“Someone thinks that they saw Carmilla Karnstein. I have a picture. Does this look like the woman from the plane?” Danny asks, shivering and wet. Despite it’s dripping, the woman in the picture is obvious. She has almost white looking blonde hair, and a congenial smile that looks contagious with perfectly straight and white teeth.  
“Kind of...not really. I’m sorry, it’s all still rather blurry. I was just so totally and completely terrified.” she says with a shiver.  
“Laura! Invite your guest in, sweetheart. It’s Christmas, don’t leave her out there to freeze!” a woman’s voice scolds from another room.  
“Oh, I’m sorry, please go on it.” Laura says sheepishly.  
“Hey, I’m Mircalla Hollis. Laura’s wife.” she introduces herself. Danny looks the woman over before doing the same.  
“Agent Danny Lawrence, FBI. I’m the head of the Karnstein case.” she says in the world’s most exhausted voice.   
“I’m guessing that that must be the world’s worst job.” she says, looking sympathetic. Mircalla is taller than Laura (most everyone is), and shorter than Danny (most everyone is). She has long dark hair, down to the small of her back and equally dark eyes, the kind that make you feel as though she’s peering directly into your soul. Danny smiles back at her as she accepts a mug of cocoa.  
“It’s certainly not the easiest.” she chuckles.  
“At least you have a job.” Mircalla groans. “I just got back six years ago, and I still haven’t found work.” the older woman invites her to sit down and eat with them.  
“You’re a Vet?” Danny asks.  
“Yes, ma’am.”   
“The Tet Offensive?”  
“Yes, ma’am.”   
“Damn.” Danny says with a nod, and toasting her cocoa.  
“Damn straight.” Mircalla agrees.  
“You know, I might be able to help you out there.” Danny offers. “I’m in need of a partner, though it’s the world’s worst job.”  
With Danny’s help, Mircalla gets to go to Quantico and train. The two become fast friends, bonding over war stories and knowledge of the Karnstein case. Eventually, Calla gets sworn in. Mircalla is immediately one of the best agents that Danny has ever had. They work for years, taking over cold cases, including the Karnstein case. LaFontaine swears that Carmilla Karnstein is dead, having been caught in the trees where they think that she might have landed or has disappeared with the money. Calla and Danny make a great pair, with Danny’s natural ability to talk people down, and Calla’s willingness to jump over cars and tackle people with no worries about her own safety at all. Calla regularly thought that Danny thought too much of people or read into them too much, but she didn’t ever agree when her partner told Danny that.  
The next big break that Danny Lawrence caught on the Karnstein case was from a little boy, now a man full grown, that had been on the plane. He swears that he definitely remembers Carmilla Karnstein having looked completely different from how she did in the official sketch. Danny was on her way down to reception, when Calla yelled to her that Todd was on the phone for her, and that it sounded urgent. Danny immediately turned on her heel and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.  
“Hey, buddy, what’s going on?” she asks breathlessly as she picks up the phone, quickly as she can.  
“I’ve got this, Danny. Go do whatever your boy needs you to do.” Mircalla told her partner.  
“You sure?” Danny checks just to be sure.  
“Of course I am. Give the kid a hug for me and tell him that Aunt Calla wants to hang out soon.” Mircalla grins and smacks Danny’s arm.  
“I’ll be right there, Todd. Don’t move.” Danny says into the phone. “I love you.” she hangs up and grabs her jacket.  
“Thanks so much, Hollis. I owe you one.” she says thankfully as she books it down the stairs, worrying Mircalla that she would fall and break her neck in her haste and worry over her son. Mircalla couldn’t help but to worry as well.

\------///////--------

Danny slowed down to a stop in front of where her son stood forlornly on the sidewalk in front of the school.  
“You want to tell me what happened, bud?” Danny asks when Todd approached her window.  
“Some of the older boys asked to borrow my bike so that they could find their lost puppy.” he explains.  
“How long ago was that?” Danny asks, trying not to smile.  
“Two hours.” Todd admits.  
“Do you think that they are actually looking for a dog, Todd?” Danny asks, giving her little son a knowing look.  
“No.” he says with a heavy sigh. “I’m not going to get my bike back, am I?”  
“I don’t think so, my man. I don’t think so. What I do think is that you trust people very easily and want to see the best in them and that that is a very good thing. You know that your Aunt Calla and I hunt down bad guys for a living, right?” Danny asks.  
“Yeah.” He answers, nodding pretty emphatically.  
“Your Aunt Calla doesn’t like it that I think the best of the people that we find and arrest. she doesn’t like it that, like you, I would lend them my bicycle if they told me that they needed it to find their puppy. She thinks that they would all run off with it and not give it back. Do you know what would happen if I never let anyone borrow my bike?” Danny asks him.  
“No one would ever find their puppy would they?” Todd asks, feeling like a big boy for following along with the conversation.

\------//////------

Danny and Mircalla were walking back to the station on the way back from lunch when a teenage looking girl ran up to them, obviously tripping out on something.  
“What’s wrong? Are you okay? What’s going on?” Danny asks after the girl runs straight into her.  
He wants me, he’s been after me for a while. I can’t… I don’t … “ she rattles, not making a lick of sense.  
“Can you take me to him?” Danny asks, gripping the girl’s forearms to keep her upright.  
“Really, Lawrence? She’s obviously on something. Let’s get back to work.” Mircalla said with a roll of her eyes, obviously not believing anything the poor girl was saying.  
“We should hear her out. There have been reports of a lot of girls disappearing lately off of the streets.” Danny protests, already following the apparently homeless girl.  
“Probably because they’ve been sold some bad acid or they’ve been overdosed.” she rolls her eyes.  
“Stay if you want. I’m going to help.” Danny growls back.  
“The girl they had been following yelps suddenly and jumps backwards as though she had burned herself on the stove. Danny scans the area and locks her eyes with one young man who immediately pales, turns tail, and runs. Mircalla, having seen the whole thing, turns to give chase, bowling people over and shoving them out of her way without a care, as Danny runs around the side in an attempt to cut them both off.  
“Stop, FBI.” she orders, her gun pointed directly at the creeps forehead as he almost runs into her. “Take me to where you put the girls.” she instructs , gesturing with her gun for Mircalla to cuff him.  
At gun point and with some less than gentle prodding, Danny convinced the young killer to lead them to a spot in the woods where Mircalla identified ten separate decomposing bodies. She expected an ‘I told you so’ from Danny at some point. However, when she looked back all she saw was her partner choking back tears. Giving Lawrence a moment, Mircalla stuffs the creep into the back of the car.  
How did you know?” she asks. “How did you know that the kid was for real, that she was telling the truth?”  
“All I knew was that she had fear in her voice. That made it worth it to me.” Danny explains, running a hand through her hair before walking to the car and getting in the driver’s seat while Mircalla called the gruesome incident in.

\------/////-------

Calla and Danny had been partners for nearly ten years now and no progress had been made on the Carmilla Karnstein case. They had, in the meantime, made a major dent in the number of cold cases kept in the back room, but only one cold case kept Danny Lawrence up at night. Sometimes Kirsch would come in at two am. to find his wife staring at the file on the elusive woman.  
“We only know two things for sure. This picture and her name. All else is just guesswork and supposition.” she groans, frustrated to tears by her greatest failure.  
“No one cares about the Karnstein case anymore, but you, honey.” Kirsch tells her.  
“Mircalla cares.” Danny says with a cutesy pout.  
“Oh, right, I had forgotten that the two of you were one person. My apologies.” he teases as the phone begins to ring. Danny picks it up to hear Laura on the other end. “I’ll be right there.” she says, jumping up and and pulling on a coat immediately. “It’s Mircalla. I’ll be back as soon as everything gets sorted. I promise.” she tells Kirsch, kissing him quickly before running outside.

\------/////------

“Laura! What happened?! Where’s Calla?” Danny asks, running to where the small woman sat crying to herself heavily in the hospital’s waiting room.  
“It was her heart. It finally gave out on her. She’s gone, Danny.” Laura explains, sobbing into the shoulder of Danny’s shirt.  
“It’s okay. Everything will be okay. You don’t have to tell me anything else, until later.” Danny says, trying hard to swallow the lump that had taken up residence in her throat. “I’ll go gather her things, then I’ll take you home.”  
She stood up and took a deep breath, doing her best to hold it together for at least as long as she needed to. Laura finally fell asleep on the drive back to Danny’s house, though it was fitful and restless. Danny carried her inside and laid her on the couch, not wanting to wake her husband up yet, especially not only for the purpose of just giving him bad news. She made herself some hot chocolate and sat beside of a near unconscious Laura, crying over a black and gold badge that she held so tightly in one hand that it almost cut into the skin. She sat for hours and hours, reliving their history in her mind, how they had met, family dinners, double dates, and many days spent poring over case files. She called in sick at around five am, for herself, Laura, Kirsch, and Todd, not wanting anyone that she loved to leave her that day. As soon as she saw Laura beginning to wake up, Danny made her a mug of hot chocolate.  
“Morning Laura, it’s a new day.” Danny tells her as she takes a sip and reaches for a battered set of dog tags from Mircalla’s days in VIetnam.  
“Good morning. There’s something that Mircalla wanted me to tell you once she was dead. SOmething that the two of us have been keeping form you for the past thirteen years.” Laura says, her eyes heavy, tired, and sad. “I’ve been lying to you since the day that I met you.”  
“It was the day before Thanksgiving in 1971. A Wednesday of course. Thus far it had been completely normal for the average workday. Drunk men on business trips trying to seduce me over the course of the short flight. A lot of them didn’t want to take no for an answer either. They completely ignored my fake engagement ring too.” she begins telling the same sort of tale that Danny has heard and told herself thousands of times now.  
“So, naturally, I didn’t think much of it when another passenger passes me a note, except that it was a woman. That perks my interest so I slip the note up my sleeve to read later during a break, however the next time that I pass her, she grabs my arm gently and asks if I have read her note in a very scary voice. I say no and she says that I really should. When I read the note it said exactly the same thing that I told you it did, I swear.” Laura stops to take a deep and steadying breath. “And she winked right at me.”  
“Once we were alone on the plane, but for the pilots, Carmilla asked me if I thought that she was crazy and I said yes. I was terrified on an all of the way to a molecular level. My heart was beating so very loudly that I was pretty sure that she could hear me. I thought that I was going to vomit. Then, she started laughing and it was one of the best, the very best sounds that I have ever heard in my life. Carmilla then told me that she didn’t want to hurt anybody, she only wanted the money so that she could take care of a friend that she had lost in the Tet Offensive’s family. I started to warm up to her after that. She was incredibly charming, and I couldn’t help myself but to fall prey to it. I was nearly sure that i was going absolutely crazy. I thought that I was losing my mind. I felt safe with her. I knew that I was going crazy and I knew that I should definitely not feel as safe with her as I did, but I didn’t mind it at all. Somehow, I knew that everything was going to be okay. She called me nicknames.  
“Can I have another bourbon and water, cutie?”  
“Keep the change, Cupcake.”  
“Get something for yourself, Poptart.”  
“I always really liked that about her. When the plane took off she told me to go and sit with the pilots for my own safety. We were flying over the woods when alarms all over the cockpit, lights were flashing, and a whooshing sound echoed in from the cabin. Despite the men’s protests I ran into the cabin. Despite the men’s protests I ran into the cabin to see what was going on. I clung to the side wall and saw that one of the emergency exits was open, and that Carmilla was standing on the edge, wearing a parachute, getting ready to jump. I screamed at her to stop and ran - or more like fell- towards her. I would’ve fallen out of the plan, had she not caught me. She pulled me close and asked me what I thought that I was doing. I said that I didn’t want her to jump, because she would definitely die if she did. That much was simple common sense. She asked me why I cared so much, looking really confused, and I told her that I didn’t know, I just didn’t want her to die, because that wouldn’t be nice at all. She promised me that she wouldn’t and dropped her dog tags in my hand, turned me loose once I was safe and jumped. I screamed as though it were me who was falling through the air at a breakneck speed.” Laura told the story with wide eyes, her heart beating against the inside of her ribcage to the point that she thought that it might break those bones. She had never told this story, honestly, before and it was really rather scary hearing how many lies were in the other version. With Mircalla now gone, the story was now extremely painful to remember.  
“I went back to my seat after closing the door and just cried and cried and cried.” Laura admits. “I decided that I was going to lie then. I decided that I was going to lie to protect Carmilla’s reputation and name. I lied when I described her to the sketch artist. A week after the hijacking a knock came at my door. I picked up the gun that I had gotten myself and answered it. She immediately flew into me for lying for her and thanking me for caring about whether or not she lived or died. We lived together for years. She changed her name and the way she spoke on Christmas of 1976 when she met her best friend...you.”  
“Carmilla...Mircalla...they were the same person.” Danny says as her eyes filled with tears again, unable to process everything that she had just learned.  
She stands up shakily, trying hard to stay on her feet and failing before making her way into her bathroom and crumpling to the floor.  
“I can’t believe...Calla, no Calla, no.”  
A lot of things that she had previously dismissed made a lot of sense now, as though a lot of missing puzzle pieces were beginning to click together into place. Danny knew that she should arrest Laura, but she also knew that there was no way that she could bring herself to. Her life’s work had been to bring Carmilla Karnstein to justice, and she had. She was just on the other side of the bars. At least, she had been. Now, Danny would never be able to ask Carmilla / Mircalla her questions than ever before. Still, she was very glad to have known that she had been of help to one more person in need of it.


End file.
